The 2015 DTM season is officially launched at Oschersleben
The final countdown is on for the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, after today’s official launch at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. From tomorrow, three days of the last official testing will ensue, with the season opener at Hockenheim just two and a half weeks away.
It was all smiles for the main family photo, featuring all 24 drivers and one each of the Audi RS 5 DTM, the Mercedes AMG C63 DTM and the BMW M4 DTM, contenders from the three manufacturers officially involved in the championship.
Hans Werner Aufrecht, chairman of ITV, the series’ promoter, was joined in a press conference by the reigning champion, BMW’s Marco Wittmann, as well as Mercedes’ Christian Vietoris and Audi’s Timo Scheider.
This year the DTM returns to a two-race per event format, both of them awarding full championship points. Aufrecht sees this change as a plus for the fans: “We want to offer spectators what they want to watch, and this is on track fighting, and not engineers struggling on the pit wall. We are happy that we were able to reach a deal with the manufacturers, with sustained commitment to the sport being an important step towards the future.”
Marco Wittmann starts his third racing season in the DTM sporting the number one on his car, and can’t wait to get back into action: “The winter break was long and we didn’t have many testing days. Therefore, I’m looking forward to the first race.”
Christian Vietoris thinks there is a lot still to be said before being able to judge where everyone will be this year, specially with regards to Mercedes, who struggled for pace last season: “We have to wait and see where we stand in comparison to others. The team has worked hard and there are lots of new people on board. I’m very pleased with the new racing format, I think it’s very positive to have two races per weekend and will be very attractive for the fans.”
On his part, Timo Scheider is already looking forward to the new challenge, having worked on improving his fitness: “The program with two races in the weekend will be tighter than what we are used to, so we have to be ready. But we will find a way to manage.”
From Tuesday to Thursday, the teams and drivers will have the last three days of testing before the season start in Hockenheim, from the 1st to the 3rd of May.
